Two nurses lose licenses over involvement with drugs

Florida has stripped two health professionals of their licenses over involvement with drugs, according to the state Department of Health.

▪ Guillermo Delgado of South Miami-Dade, already stripped of his pharmacy technician license, also has lost his practical nurse license. Both actions follow his incarceration in federal prison in Miami.

Delgado pleaded guilty in 2015 to one count of conspiracy to possess controlled substances with intent to distribute and was sentenced to nine years and two months in federal prison.

In court documents, he admitted to introducing Emerson Carmona to Jose Carlos Morales, owner of several now-closed pharmacies. Carmona and Morales agreed to run a basic Medicare scam. Carmona would refer Medicare beneficiaries to Morales’ pharmacies and Morales would pay kickbacks.

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Meanwhile, Delgado got false prescriptions from licensed physicians for oxycodone, oxymorphone and other controlled substances. These prescriptions went to Delgado-controlled or Morales-owned pharmacies. The ones that went to Delgado’s pharmacies were sold by Delgado and Carmona to the Juan De Dios Gomez and Gerardo Gomez.

Carmona got four years, nine months for conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute oxycodone and oxymorphone and has another two years to serve after that on another charge. Morales is serving a total of 14 years for healthcare fraud and conspiracy to defraud the United States.

Gomez, originally sentenced to six years on his drug dealing and fraud charges, had his sentence reduced to three years and was released June 30, 2016. De Dios Gomez’s sentence is down to 13 years, four months on drug dealing and fraud charges after sentenced to 16 years, eight months in prison.

▪ A restriction was put on Coral Springs’ registered nurse Julie Nickell’s license. She tested positive last November for fentanyl and hydromorphone when her prescriptions for them were old. Both drugs were being given to a patient on the shift before her drug screen. She was placed in the Intervention Program for Nurses, but tested positive for morphine while in the program. She is restricted from practicing as a registered nurse until an IPN evaluator says otherwise.